Chuckie's Masterpiece
by rugphan
Summary: A Danny Phantom/Rugrats/Simpsons crossover. While visiting an art museum for Chuckie's new love of art, Danny and Tommy, along with Chuckie, Tommy's new neighbor Susie Carmichael, and Bart Simpson have to stop two robbers from stealing a copy of the Mona Lisa. Will they stop the bad guys in time? The 3rd story in my Danny, Tommy, and Friends story series.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own any of these characters except for the two robbers Mark and Jasper, and the Janitors Jerald and Zack. Butch Hartman owns Danny Phantom, Paul Germain owns The Rugrats, and Matt Groening owns The Simpsons.**

Chuckie's Masterpiece

(Part of the Danny, Tommy, and Friends Story Series)

Written by Rugphan

WARNING (Seriously this time.): _**Never**_ try these kind of 'stunts' the babies are going to do at home, or at a museum, or anywhere else. And, more importantly, _**never**_ talk to strangers. You _**never**_ know what they might be up to.

Chapter 1: Tommy's New Neighbors

"_**T**_ommy!" Danny cried. "Over here! I'm open!"

Danny Fenton was playing catch with Tommy Pickles in the Pickles' backyard. The two of them were bored that Sunday, so Tommy suggested to play a game of 'Don't Drop the Ball'. The goal of the game was to see how many times you could catch the ball without dropping it. The high score so far for Danny and Tommy was seven.

"Okay, Danny!" Tommy exclaimed. He was about to throw the ball to his playmate, but paused instead. "What number comes nextest?"

"Three." Danny said, answering the question for him.

Tommy nodded. "Okay, then! Here comes number three!" He threw the giant star ball as hard as he could, and Danny caught it easily.

"Alright!" Danny cried. "I caught it!"

"Great job, Danny!" Tommy said, happily. "Now, toss it back to me!" He raised his hands up in the air as he said it.

"Okay!" Danny replied. "Here comes number four!"

He tossed the ball as gently as he could. But apparently, Danny threw it a little _too_ hard. Tommy ran up to try and catch the ball, but missed. It bounced up about ten feet into the air. This time, Danny tried to catch the giant star ball. He almost caught it, but it slipped out of his arms like a giant stick of butter. The ball then jumped up, going way above and over Tommy's head, and flew over the fence into Tommy's front yard.

"Uh, oh!" Danny cried. "Sorry about that, Tommy!"

Tommy sighed. "It's okay. But that was my favoritest ball in the whole wild world! But now it's gone! My Mommy and Daddy told me I'm not apposed to go in the front yard without a growed up!"

Danny smiled. "Don't worry Tommy! I'll get your ball back!" He thought for a moment. "Tell you what, I'll give you a lift on my shoulders near the fence, and tell me if you see it!"

Tommy nodded. "Okay! Let's do it!"

Danny hoisted Tommy onto his back, and held onto his playmate's legs. "Do you see anything?" he asked.

"Well," Tommy replied, "I see some houses, and some flowers, and some trees, and-,"

"I mean, did you find your ball?"

"Um, no." Tommy said, disappointedly.

Danny was about to put Tommy back down when he suddenly cried, "Wait a minute! I see it now!" Tommy frowned and glanced down at his playmate. "But it's across the street!"

Danny frowned too. "But I'm not allowed across the street without a grown up!" he cried. "Now what are we gonna do?"

Tommy smiled again. "Let's go and see if my Mommy will takes us across the street to gets my ball!"

"Good thinking!" Danny exclaimed.

The two of them headed for sliding glass door that led into Tommy's kitchen. The Pickles' kitchen was nice looking, along with the rest of the house. The walls were painted a light blue color, and the floor tiles were painted yellow and white. There were cupboards and drawers everywhere (Sometimes, Danny would forget which ones held the crayons and paper for when he and Tommy wanted to draw things.). All that was in the middle of the small room was the refrigerator and the big, round kitchen table.

Danny tugged on the sliding glass door as hard as he could until it opened. He quickly wiped his white sneakers with red shoelaces on the mat outside the door, and he and Tommy stepped inside.

"Mrs. Pickles?" Danny called.

No answer.

He tried calling again. "Mrs. Pickles?"

Still no answer.

Danny turned to Tommy. "I wonder where she went."

Tommy shrugged. Then he said, "Usually my Mommy leaves a note for my Daddy saying that she's went somewheres on the kitchen table. Let's see if she lefted one for him!"

Danny walked to the kitchen table. It was a little too high for him to see anything, so Danny stood on his tippy toes and looked around the table. Sure enough, there was a piece of notebook paper with Didi Pickles handwriting on it. Danny quickly grabbed the piece of paper from the table and showed it to his friend.

"See!" Tommy exclaimed. "I told you! What does it say?"

Danny read the note to Tommy. It said:

Stu,

I'm across the street visiting the new neighbors. Please give Tommy and Danny their lunch at 1:30. I will be back in about an hour.

-Didi

"That's perfect, Tommy!" Danny cried. "You're Mom's just across the street! Maybe she'll see your ball and bring it back!"

"But what if she doesn't see it?" Tommy asked, worriedly.

"Then we'll just ask her when she gets back from visiting the new neighbors!" Danny replied.

Tommy looked puzzled. "What are neighbors, anyways? Are they like horsys or something?"

Danny laughed. "No, Tommy. They're people who live close to you. Like these neighbors are just across the street from your house. Phil and Lil are your neighbors because they live right next to your house." He paused. "Is this making any sense to you?"

Tommy nodded. "I thinks so." he answered. "But I don't gets why they're _new_ neighbors. My Mommy and Daddy have known the peoples across the street for a long time. So, why are they new all of a sudden?"

"Because, those people who used to live at that house moved to another town, in another house." Danny explained.

Tommy's eyes widened. "You can _do_ thats?"

"Uh, huh!"

"But what about all of their stuffs?"

"Don't worry, Tommy! Your old neighbors took all of their stuff with them!"

"Where?"

"To the new house they're living in!"

"Why did they move anyways?"

"I don't know! Probably because one of their jobs moved or something!"

"Wait a minute! Jobs can move to different towns, too?" Tommy glanced at Danny with a puzzled look on his face. "You're really starting to confoose me, Danny!"

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but he thought better of it. "Forget it, Tommy." he mumbled.

Tommy's frown suddenly turned into a smile. "Hey! Do you think my new neighbors gots any kids?" He toddled over to the front door to take a peek out the window so he could try and get a glimpse of his neighbors across the street.

Danny shrugged. "I don't know." Then he grinned. "But we can always find out!" He went into the living room and walked over to his new, small, blue bag. Danny then opened the zipper, rummaged through the bag a bit, and pulled out a pair of small, blue binoculars. He headed back to the front door to where Tommy was still waiting for him.

"Wow, Danny!" he exclaimed. "What is that?"

"They're called binoculars. You can use them to look at things from a far distance. Now," Danny continued, "let's see who's moving in!"

He moved closer to the window, and held the binoculars up to his face. Danny was surprised to find that the lenses were very dark and blurry.

"Huh?"

He turned the binoculars around to see if he was holding them the right way, or if the lenses were dirty. But it turned out that there was a label stuck to the front of them! Danny peeled the label off as carefully as he could, and read it. It said:

WARNING: OBJECTS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.

Danny chuckled and rolled his eyes. 'Why do the manufacturers need to put _this_ on a pair of binoculars?' He shrugged, crumpled the label in his right hand, and put it in his pocket. Then, Danny started to look across the street with the binoculars again. The lenses were much clearer now.

All he could see so far was a giant moving truck, along with Tommy's star ball right behind it in the backyard of the Pickles' new neighbors.

"You never told me that there was a moving truck across the street!" Danny said, not taking his eyes off the binoculars.

"There is?" Tommy asked, with excitement in his voice. "It wasn't theres when I was looking for my ball! Let me sees!"

Danny handed the binoculars to Tommy, and he looked through them with amazement. "Wow! You're right! There is a giant truck out theres!"

A few more minutes passed without any luck of seeing the neighbors. Stu Pickles came up from the basement with his toolbox, and glanced over to see Danny and Tommy looking out the window. Stu chuckled to himself. 'What are those boys up to now?' he wondered.

He approached Danny and Tommy as slowly as he could. Then, he lifted Tommy up into his arms as fast as he could. Tommy gasped at first when he was unexpectedly grabbed. But, when he saw it was his Dad, he giggled with delight.

Danny turned around to see what was making Tommy laugh so hard. "Oh, hey, Mr. Pickles!" Danny exclaimed. "What's new?"

"I was just going to ask the same thing." Stu said, pointing to Danny's binoculars.

"Oh, these? Well, we saw the note about Mrs. Pickles visiting the neighbors across the street, so, Tommy and I decided to see if your new neighbors have any kids we can play with."

Stu set Tommy back down, and leaned next to Danny. "Have you boys had any luck yet?"

"Not yet." Danny said, lifting the binoculars up to his face again. Nobody was in the neighbors yard yet.

"Well," Stu said, "I don't think reading _my_ notes and spying on our new neighbors is going to help anything."

Danny glanced up at Stu when he realized what he was trying to say. "I guess I should've thought of that beforehand." he said, apologetically. "Sorry, Mr. Pickles. I wasn't trying to invade yours or the neighbors privacy."

Stu nodded. "It's okay, Danny." He paused, then said, "Tell you what, why don't I give you and Tommy some lunch, and then we'll go over and see the new neighbors. Sound like a plan?"

"Sounds great!" Danny exclaimed. "Thanks, Mr. Pickles!"

Stu nodded again, and headed toward the kitchen, while Danny and Tommy started to build a block tower. Just when Stu was about open the refrigerator, the doorbell rang. He quickened up his pace a bit and got to the door before the doorbell's forth ring. Stu grinned when he looked into the peep hole and opened the door. It was Chas Finster and his two-year -old son, Chuckie.

Chas greeted Stu with a big smile and said, "Sorry to come here in such short notice, but my Dad has a huge cold and my Mom needs some help around the house for a few days."

Stu frowned. "Is he alright?"

Chas nodded. "I just need someone to watch Chuckie until Tuesday, and I haven't been able to get anybody to baby sit." he explained. "Betty and Howard are taking Phil and Lil to the doctor's for a checkup. Charlotte and Drew are with Angelica at a hotel for Charlotte's business meeting. And Danny, Sam, and Tucker's houses are in a whole different town!"

"Don't worry about it, Chas!" Stu exclaimed. "Bring all of Chuckie's stuff over here so he can spend the night. Danny's staying here until Tuesday anyway, while his parents are at an inventors science meeting. Jazz is at a friend's house. Tucker, Sam, and their parents are away too."

"Wow!" Chas cried, setting Chuckie down into the Pickles' hallway. "And I thought spring break was supposed to be relaxing!"

As Chas and Stu continued their chat, Chuckie toddled over to where Danny and Tommy were playing. "Hi'ya guys!" Chuckie greeted them happily.

"Hi'ya, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed.

"What's knew, Chuck?" Danny asked.

"Well, I'm staying here for two whole days!" Chuckie replied.

"Cool! So am I!"

"That's great!" Chuckie paused, then asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"We're building a block tower!" Tommy answered. "Do you wanna help us out?"

"Sure!" Chuckie picked up a block, and carefully set it on top of the block tower. "Why are we building a block tower anyway?"

"We're waiting for my Daddy to make us some lunch, then we gets to go visit the new neighbors!"

"Oh." Chuckie carefully placed another block on the tower. He paused again, then said, "I didn't know you gots horsys, Tommy!"

"You'd better start asplaining, Danny!" Tommy exclaimed, patting his playmate on the back.

Danny sighed.

* * *

_**A**_fter a quick lunch, and a few face wipes, Chuckie, Danny, Tommy, and Stu headed out the door to visit the new neighbors.

"So, wait a minute!" Chuckie exclaimed, turning to Danny. "I don't gets the lastest part! Jobs can move to different towns, too?"

Danny nodded. "Yes, Chuck. They can."

Chuckie glanced at Danny with a puzzled look on his face. "This whole neighbors thing is too confoosing! It makes my head hurt!"

Danny looked puzzled himself. "Why do I feel like I just went through this whole routine before?" he asked, to no one in particular.

"'Cause you did!" Tommy said, answering Danny's question for him.

"Thanks, Tommy."

"Don't mention it, Danny!"

As they came closer to the neighbors' house, Tommy suddenly realized something. He tugged on Danny's T-shirt sleeve. Danny glanced down at him. "What is it, Tommy?"

"What if the new neighbors does gots kids?" Tommy asked. "Shouldn't we gives them something to welcome them?"

Chuckie nodded. "Tommy's right, Danny!" he exclaimed. "We should at least welcome them with something!"

"Okay!" Danny said, happily. "I brought four small bags of Gummi Dummi Bears to last me through the weekend. It's not much, but I can at least give away two of them!"

Chuckie searched through both of his pockets, and pulled out a cherry sucker. "My chin gets really messy from these things anyways!" he explained.

Tommy rummaged through his diaper a bit. "I gots an extra Reptar Bar from today's lunch!" he cried, pulling his snack out.

"I think that's enough for a good welcome!" Danny exclaimed. "Now, let's head inside!"

Stu approached the door and rang the doorbell. No more than ten seconds later, a smiling, African American, lady with short, dark brown hair opened the door. From what Chuckie, Danny, and Tommy could tell, she seemed nice.

Stu introduced himself. "Hello, there! My name is Stu Pickles. I live just across the street."

The lady nodded. "Oh, yes!" she exclaimed. "Didi told me you would possibly be stopping by!" She stuck out her right hand. "I'm Lucy Carmichael."

"Nice to meet you Lucy." Stu said, shaking her hand. He bent down toward the babies. "This is my son Tommy, and his friends Chuckie and Danny. I hope you don't mind I brought them along."

"Not at all!" Mrs. Carmichael exclaimed. "I've been trying to get my three year old daughter, Susie, some friends to play with. She always used to tag along with her sister and her brothers when they went out to play with their friends." She chuckled to herself. "Kids will be kids. Oh, please, do come in!"

What Mrs. Carmichael said made the babies grin. They had a new friend to play with!

Mrs. Carmichael bent down toward Danny. "You can lead the babies upstairs, dear. Susie should be up in her room. It's the second door on the left side of the hall."

"Thanks, Mrs. Carmichael!"

The three boys slowly headed up the stairs. The hallway was very wide, and a little bit dark. But it was light enough so the three of them could find their way to Susie's room. It was a good thing, too. There were lots of boxes everywhere!

"Tommy," Chuckie whispered, "I'm ascared of the dark!"

"Don't worry, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed. "We're almost theres! Besides, I'm sure Susie has plenty of lights on in her room!"

But, the strange thing was, when they got to Susie's door, the door was closed. A light shone out from underneath the crack, indicating that someone was in there. But, the boys couldn't hear anyone moving around in the room.

"What should we do, you guys?" Chuckie asked, nervously.

Danny thought the best approach was to knock on the door to see if anyone was inside. After all, he and his friend Sam got locked in their own classroom once after the Tommy, Chuckie, and his other friends purposely locked the door on them. The babies only did that because he and Sam got into a huge fight. But Danny wouldn't take any chances.

He slowly knocked on Susie's door.

Knock! Knock! Knock! "Hello?"

Nothing.

Danny tried again. A little harder this time.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "Hello? Is anyone in there? We came here to welcome you!"

This time someone responded. "Just a second!"

A few seconds passed before someone opened the door. A little African American girl stood in front of them. She had long curly brown hair tied up into three different colored pink tails. She wore a yellow shirt with purple flowers that went down to her knees, purple pants that matched the flowers on her shirt, and red shoes. The girl smiled at the three boys. When she did, they could see that she had a huge gap on her top, front teeth.

"Sorry, about that!" she exclaimed. "I would normally leave my bedroom door open, but since we just moved here, I kept my door closed 'cause my room's kind of messy! Come on in!" The girl held the door open for the three of them.

As the boys stepped into the girl's room, Tommy exclaimed, "So you must be Susie!"

"That's right!" Susie said. "I'm sorry, but I don't knows your guys names yet!"

"Well," Tommy started, "I'm Tommy, your new neighbor from across the street, and that's Chuckie, and Danny, my two bestest friends."

"Hi'ya, Susie!" Chuckie said, shyly. He rummaged through his pockets a bit. "I brought you a lollypop!" he said, pulling it out and holding up to his new friend.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Danny cried. He took out the two small Gummi Dummi Bears packages and tossed them on the ground. "Welcome to the neighborhood, Susie!"

Tommy pulled the Reptar Bar from out of his diaper. "We know this isn't much," he said, "but we wanted to gives you something to welcome you."

"Aw, you guys didn't have to do this!" Susie exclaimed.

"We knows." Chuckie replied. "We just wanted to."

Susie smiled.

Tommy glanced around Susie's room, confused. The only type of furniture in there was Susie's bed and dresser, plus a couple of boxes. Other than that there was nothing else in the room. There were no toys in there at all. Tommy was also surprised to see that Susie's window didn't have any curtains.

"How comes you only gots your bed, your clothes holder thingy, and some boxes in here, Susie?" he asked.

Susie giggled. "We only just moved in here about an hour ago," she explained. "so we haven't unpacked much of our stuffs yet!"

"Oh!" Tommy exclaimed. He paused. "Does this mean your Mommy and Daddy told you and your brothers and sister that you was moving 'cause their jobs moved?"

Susie's smile turned into a surprised look. "I didn't know jobs could move." she said, amazed.

Chuckie cut in. "They sure can!" he said, nodding. "Just ask Danny. He's the one who knows a lot of stuffs!"

Danny was caught totally off guard when Chuckie had said this. He didn't know what to say. "I…well…uh…" he stammered. He decided to go with the easy answer. "Yes. Jobs can move to different towns."

Susie grinned once again. "I guess that explains why I moved here. My Daddy said we needed to move so he could go to his job at the Dummi Bears convention!"

"Wait a minute!" Danny exclaimed. "Your _Dad_ works for the Dummi Bears?"

Tommy and Chuckie glanced at each other excitedly.

"That's so cool!" Tommy cried. "What does he do?"

Susie frowned. "I'm not sure. But it has something to do with making toys and stuff for the Dummi Bear show."

"Sweet!" Danny said, smiling. He paused for a moment and asked, "Did your Dad work next to any of those guys who did the toys for Reptar?"

"Yeah! He used to work for them until he got promoted for being in charge of the Dummi Bear toys, whatever that means. Why?"

"My parents used to make the gadgets there for Reptar's show."

"Wow! What are their names?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton."

Susie looked puzzled. "I don't think my Daddy knew anybody who's last name is Fenton. I'll ask him later, though!"

"Great!"

Chuckie shuddered. "No fence or anything, Susie, but can we turn another light on in here? It's really dark in here!"

Susie sighed. "Sorry, Chuckie. There is no other light in here! The lastest people who used to live here painted this room black, so it makes the room dark even when the light's on!"

"Why would someone want to paint a room black?" Danny asked.

Susie shrugged. "I don't know. But I don't likes it!"

"Neither do I!" Chuckie exclaimed.

"My Daddy said that if any of us didn't like the color of the paint in our rooms, he would paint them whatever color we liked." Susie sighed again. "The only problem is that I don't know what color I want my room to be!"

Tommy stood still for a moment frowning, with his left eyebrow furrowed in concentration, and his left hand on his chin.

Susie was staring at him. "Is Tommy gonna be okay?" she asked, worriedly. "He doesn't look so good!"

"Huh?" Danny turned to look at his playmate's face. Then he smiled and faced Susie again. "Don't worry, Susie! Tommy's all right. That's just what he looks like when he's thinking!"

"Is that a good thing?"

Danny nodded excitedly. "That means something fun's gonna happen!"

"Or dangerous." Chuckie added.

"Yeah, or-," Danny paused. "This could also mean trouble."

A minute later, Susie's light bulb flickered and brightened up the room once again. "I gots it!" Tommy exclaimed.

"Got(s) what?" his three friends asked him eagerly.

"I gots an idea how to help Susie paints her room!" Tommy said, happily. "When me, Chuckie, and Danny goes back to my house, we'll draw some pictures! Then tomorrow, Susie can comes over and looks at the pictures and she can choose which one she likes the bestest! Then that picture," he continued, "can be the painting that goes on Susie's wall!"

"That's a great idea, Tommy!" Chuckie cried. "What do you thinks, Danny?"

"Let's do it!" Danny cried. "I think I've already got some ideas!" He paused. "But first, we'd better see what Susie thinks."

Susie nodded. "That's not a bad idea, Tommy! Goes for it!"

"Goes for whats?" Tommy asked, puzzled.

"Goes for those crayons and paper, and start drawing those pictures!"

"We will, Susie! We promless we'll have some good pictures by tomorrow!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Chuckie's Masterpiece

**_"O_**kay, babies!" Tommy exclaimed. "Start those crams!"

Chuckie, Danny, and Tommy had just gotten home from the Carmichaels' new home, and the three young boys were eager in trying to draw some good pictures for Susie's room. Tommy had gone up as fast as he could to his room, and grabbed a twenty-four pack of crayons and plenty of sheets of paper from underneath his bed. Now, all of them were coloring away on the coffee table in the Pickles' living room. Well, almost everyone anyway.

Chuckie kept lowering his purple crayon toward his blank piece of paper, hesitated, then raised his hand, and switched his crayon to his other hand.

Danny happened to notice this. "Is something wrong, Chuck?"

Chuckie jumped, startled, then said, "Um, sort of."

"What is it?"

Chuckie hesitated once again.

"You can tell me and Tommy anything, Chuck!" Danny said, smiling. "We promise we won't laugh. Right, Tommy?"

Tommy glanced up at Chuckie and nodded. "We promless, Chuckie!"

Chuckie took a deep breath and said, "My Daddy says, I'm anti-dexterous."

Danny smiled, and held back his laughter. "I think you mean, ambidextrous, Chuck." he corrected.

Tommy glanced at Chuckie, puzzled. "What does that mean?" he asked.

Danny turned to Chuckie before answering. Chuckie nodded to let Danny know that he could answer Tommy's question.

"You know how you draw with your right hand, Tommy?" Danny started. "And I draw with my left hand? Well…" he paused. Danny couldn't think of a good enough way to explain what ambidextrous meant. So, Chuckie took over.

"It's like when we go on the seesaw at the park, Tommy." he explained. "There's one side of the seesaw that doesn't have the little soft pillow thing on one end. So, when my bottom gets all sore, we switch places."

Tommy nodded. "But I still don't gets what seesaws gots to do with drawing pictures for Susie."

"I'm going to tell you that right now!" Chuckie exclaimed. "When my left hand gets tired of holding this crayon, I put it into my right hand. I'm able to write with both my hands. That's what anti-dexterous means."

Tommy smiled. "I thinks that's pretty cool, Chuckie!" he said, happily. "But how comes you was afraid to tell us?"

Chuckie shrugged. "When I have to switch the crayon to my other hand, my other hand has to get used to drawing for a few minutes. So, all of my pictures end up looking really messy."

Danny shrugged. "That's no big deal, Chuck!" He showed his friend his drawing. "I'm drawing some yellow stars, but they're not perfect looking! Besides," he added, "your drawing doesn't even have to be a picture! It could be rainbow colors or something."

Chuckie grinned. "You just gived me a great idea, Danny! Thanks!"

Danny nodded, and watched Chuckie take a few crayons and his sheet of paper toward the playpen. "Chuck, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going over to the playpen to draws my picture. I wants it to be a surprise for tomorrow!"

* * *

**_ "H_**ey, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed. "Can you tell us what your picture is, _now_?"

Chuckie shook his head while smiling at his best friend. "Sorry, Tommy!" he said, happily. "You gots to wait until tomorrow!"

"But tomorrow's a long time away!"

Danny grinned and shook his head. "Tommy, no matter how many times you ask Chuck to see his picture, he's not gonna show it to you until tomorrow." He quickly rolled out his dark green sleeping bag onto Tommy's bedroom floor. "Besides," he added, slipping on his red pajama pants, "you know that I want to see the picture too! It'll give us something to look forward to in the morning."

Tommy, who was standing on top of his bed plopped down onto his bed as a sign of giving up on asking Chuckie about his drawing. He was wearing dark blue footsie pajamas. "You know Danny, you can sleeps up here with me and Chuckie. There's a lota room up here!"

Danny nodded, and pulled his red pajama shirt over his head. "Thanks for the offer Tommy, but my Mom and Dad gave me this sleeping bag, and I'd better put it to good use!"

Danny had brought his sleeping bag to the Pickles' house for a few reasons. Number three: It was the middle of spring break, and it was raining. Number two: It was pretty cold in Tommy's room during winter and springtime, and his sleeping bag was comfy and warm. And Number One: Danny really didn't want to sleep with two babies that weren't (or had hardly any experience in) potty trained. Besides, Danny liked his sleeping bag. It was something he could relax in while his parents and his sister were away.

After about fifteen minutes of chatting, Didi Pickles entered the room. "Okay, boys! It's time for bed!" she said, smiling. "You don't want to be tired when Susie comes over tomorrow!"

Tommy and Chuckie slid under Tommy's bedcovers, while Danny slipped into his sleeping bag. They were all very sleepy.

"Goodnight, kids!" Didi whispered, giving the three boys each a quick kiss on the cheek. "See you in the morning!"

Danny closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Mrs. Pickles."

Didi flicked down the light switch, and quietly left the room. The only light in the room was the light that shone through the crack underneath Tommy's bedroom door, and his Reptar nightlight on his dresser. No more than two minutes later, the three young boys were soon fast asleep.

* * *

**_T_**he next morning, Danny had a surprise awakening. He was waking up to go use the bathroom, when he saw a smiling face staring straight at him.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Danny screamed.

"Good!" Tommy exclaimed. "You're awake!"

Danny was breathing hard, like he had just run a marathon. "W-What t-time is it?" he asked.

Tommy toddled across his bedroom toward his dresser, stood on his tippy-toes, and grabbed his Reptar nightlight. Tommy's Reptar nightlight was a nightlight that had a digital alarm clock attached to the bottom of it. He showed the alarm clock to his playmate.

Danny squinted at the alarm clock. He couldn't see very well in the dark. "Tommy, it's 6:45 in the morning!"

"But my Mommy always makes pamcakes on Monday mornings!" Tommy exclaimed. "I knows it's Monday 'cause my Mommy is never up this early in the morning!"

"Do you always get up around this time on Monday mornings?" Danny asked.

"Mostest, of the times, yes!" his playmate answered.

Danny sighed. "Fine. Just let me go use the bathroom, and I'll be downstairs in a minute." He slowly got up. He knew he wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep at this point.

* * *

**_"G_**ood morning, Danny!" Didi greeted him happily. "Would you like a plain or a blueberry pancake?"

Danny let out a small yawn. "Blueberry, please." he murmured, walking toward the kitchen table. He was still a little bit tired.

Danny hoisted himself onto a chair and glanced at Tommy and Chuckie. They were smiling at him while chewing on their plain pancakes. They both had maple syrup all over their faces.

"Hi'ya, Danny!" Chuckie exclaimed. "You should try one of these pamcakes! They're really nummy!"

"Yeah, Danny!" Tommy replied. "Tries one!" He took another bite of his pancake, paused, and quickly grabbed his bottle of milk sitting on the left side of his highchair. "But makes sure you gots something to drinks firstest, or else you'll gets really thirsty." Tommy took two sips of his milk, then sighed. "That's betterer!"

Danny nodded at his playmate. "I'm going to get a pancake in a minute."

Chuckie looked at Danny, and smiled, recognizing the expression on his friend's face. "Did Tommy surprise you this morning, Danny?"

Danny nodded, and laughed a little. "He was so close to my face, I nearly wet my pants when I woke up!"

"Yeah, he does that to me too. You're gonna have to get used to it." Chuckie took another bite of his pancake.

Tommy shrugged. "Sorry, Danny. That's the only way I can wait for peoples to wakes up when I'm the only one awakes!"

Danny smiled. "It's okay, Tommy. As long as it keeps me asleep longer, it's just fine with me!"

His playmate grinned, and licked some of the syrup off of his face.

Chuckie suddenly groaned.

"Are you alright, Chuck?" Danny asked, worriedly.

Chuckie quickly shook his head. "No!" he cried. "I think I ate too much of my pamcake, and drank too much of my milk!" He jumped out of his booster seat, quickly took off his Dummi Bear bib, set it on the table, and ran out of the room. "I'll be right back!" he called to his friends.

Tommy was still looking down into the living room where Chuckie had ran just a moment ago. "Speaking of the bathroom," Tommy started, "why did it take you so long to comes out heres?"

Danny glanced up at his playmate. "Tommy, I was only in the bathroom for ten minutes."

"I know." Tommy replied. "It's just that Chuckie takes only two minutes to go use the potty. It took you eight extra minutes."

"That's true, but-," Danny cut off, surprised by what Tommy had just said.

Tommy looked at his friend with a puzzled look on his face. "But, what?"

"How did you know that it took me eight extra minutes in the bathroom? You don't know how to do any math!"

His playmate shrugged. "I don't know. It was just a lucky guess."

Danny blinked twice with amazement. "Anyway, I was in the bathroom for so long because I always ruffle my hair perfectly, that way it doesn't look like a mess."

"But, Danny," Tommy interrupted, "no fence or anything, but your hair always looks like a mess."

"Point taken." Danny said smiling. He paused. "Do you wanna here a secret?"

"Sure!" Tommy exclaimed. "As long as it's between us!"

Danny sighed. "Tommy, that's what a secret is."

"Really?" Tommy's eyes widened. "No wonder Angelica doesn't tell me anything anymore."

Danny paused for a moment. Then, he glanced around to make sure no one was listening, and said to Tommy, "I was born with a ton of hair, Tommy."

"It makes sense to me."

"No, Tommy! I mean," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "my hair was a lot like Sam's when I was born."

"Wow! What did you do?"

"What all newborns do." Danny said, answering Tommy's question. "Cry. I didn't know where I was at the time. I had just come out of my small little…" He paused. Tommy was staring at Danny, wanting him to finish his sentence. "…hospital bed," he continued, "and the doctors were going to staple all of my hair to my head."

"STAPLES?!" Tommy cried.

"SHHH!" Danny hushed his playmate. "Tommy! I don't want anyone to hear you!"

"Whoops! Sorry, Danny! I mean," he lowered his voice, "staples?"

Danny nodded. "That's why my hair is like this. But remember, Tommy," he said sternly, "you can't tell anybody about this. Not even Chuck. Got it?"

Tommy nodded. "Don't worry, Danny! Your secret is safe with me!"

Danny smiled at his playmate. That's when Didi had just finished cooking his blueberry pancake. Danny took a plastic fork that was sitting in front of him, cut up a piece of his pancake, took a bite, and grinned. "You and Chuck were right! These are good pancakes!"

"Told you!" Chuckie said, as he was walking back into the kitchen.

* * *

**_A_**n hour later, after everyone was clean and dressed, Chuckie, Danny, and Tommy were sitting on the Pickles' living room couch, waiting for Susie and her Mom to arrive. Each of them had their drawing in their hands. Tommy, who was sitting next to Danny on his right side, was trying to glance at Chuckie's picture. The only problem was, Chuckie was on Danny's left side. No matter how hard Tommy tried to look at his friend's picture, Chuckie just wouldn't let him see it.

Danny noticed this, and cut in for a moment. "You guys, I need to say something."

"Sure, Danny!" both boys exclaimed.

"You've gotta promise me," he started, "that no matter who's picture gets picked, or doesn't get picked, you can't get upset about it. Susie will feel bad if you do, plus we would all start arguing."

Tommy nodded. "We promless, Danny! I just wants to see Chuckie's picture! I'm sure he did a really good job on it!"

Chuckie smiled. "Hey, thanks, Tommy!" he exclaimed, then added, "But you're still gonna haves to waits until Susie gets heres!"

About five or ten more minutes passed until the three boys heard the doorbell ring. Soon enough, Susie came running into the living room.

"Hi'ya, guys!" she greeted.

"Hi'ya, Susie!"

"What's up?" Danny asked.

"Nothing really." she said. "But my Daddy wants to buy paint colors that we don't haves today. So, we gots to decides quickly what I want my room color to be before he leaves!"

"Okay." Danny replied. "So, who would you like to go first?"

Susie thought for a moment. "I guess I'll go from my left to my right. So, I guess Tommy gets to go firstest."

Tommy smiled. He was excited to show his picture to his new friend. "Since your Daddy works for the Dummi Bears, and you likes the Dummi Bears, I drews you a pink Dummi Bear." He paused, gave Susie the picture, and added, "It doesn't haves to be pink, though. Sorry. I didn't knows whats your favorite color was."

Susie smiled at the picture of Tommy's poorly drawn Dummi Bear. "It's very nice, Tommy! It would brighten the walls a lot!" She paused. "But the problem is, I'm not sure if the Dummi Bear would cover all of the walls of my room. Sorry, Tommy."

Tommy smiled. "It's okay, Susie. I'm just trying to help a friend. Maybe you'll like Danny's betterer."

Danny gave his picture to Susie. "Since your room is black, I figured it would save less time and money to paint stars on your walls. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of things you liked, and this was the best I could come up with."

Susie grinned. "I love stars, Danny!" she exclaimed. "But I'm not eggzactly sure how much the yellow stars would brighten up the room. Thanks for trying, though."

Danny smiled, and shrugged. "It's cool." he replied.

Susie turned to Chuckie. "Okay, Chuckie. Let's see what you gots!"

Chuckie glanced around the room nervously, and started shivering. He didn't know what Susie would think of his picture. What if she thought it was no good?

"Don't be ascared, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed. "We won't laugh or make fun of your picture! We promless!"

Chuckie glanced around the living room some more, hesitated, then quickly tossed his drawing face down on the table, and covered his face with his knees. He was scared and excited at the same time.

Chuckie peeked up over his glasses. Everything was blurry, but he could tell Susie was looking at his picture. She wasn't saying anything.

'She doesn't like it!' Chuckie thought, humiliated. He buried his face even more into his knees.

"Susie," Danny started, "are you alright?"

"You guys have gots to look at this!" Susie said.

Chuckie heard Danny and Tommy walking toward Susie to see what he had drawn. Chuckie felt sick. He didn't want his two best friends to see his really bad picture.

Danny and Tommy didn't say anything either.

A few more minutes passed, then Chuckie couldn't take it anymore. "Alright!" he cried. "I know my picture's horrible! But you guys don't needs to rubs it in my face!"

Danny glanced at Chuckie with a puzzled expression on his face. "Horrible?" he asked, smiling. Then he laughed. "Chuckie! We weren't silent because we didn't like it! We were just so surprised that a two year old could draw so well, that we couldn't say anything!"

"Yeah, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed. "This is one of the bestest drawings I've ever seen!"

Susie nodded at him. "I could never draw circles _that_ perfect, Chuckie! How did you do it? You're an artist!"

Chuckie could feel his cheeks turning red. He smiled, shrugged, and answered Susie's question. "Anti-dexterousisum.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Trip to the Art Museum

**_T_**he next morning, Susie's dad started painting her black room walls with different colored, polka dotted circles. But before her dad painted the polka dots, he had to paint the walls white. Susie was so excited about her room, she kept walking in while her Dad was painting. So, her Mom had to take her to Tommy's house for the day.

When Susie got to Tommy's house, Chuckie was waiting for her. "Hi'ya, Susie!" he exclaimed. "Has your Daddy finished painting your bedroom yet?"

Susie smiled, assuming that Didi had told them that she was coming, and shook her head. "He only just started painting awhile ago. He thinks you're a good drawer, Chuckie!"

Chuckie smiled. "Danny and Tommy are upstairs talking to Sam and Tucker on the speaker phone." he said.

"Who's Sam and Tucker?"

"Some of Danny's friends from school. They come to play here all of the time. Tucker's my playmate!" He paused, then said, "You can come talk to them if you want!"

* * *

**_"T_**hat's pretty cool, you guys!" Tucker exclaimed. "I was hoping Chuckie would find something to do that he isn't scared of!" He was staying at his uncle's house for spring break.

"So, has Chuckie been doing anymore drawings?" Sam asked. She was visiting some old friends of her parents for a few days.

"Yeah." Danny replied. "He drew one picture yesterday, and two today. He seems to enjoy it. Plus, he seems to like Susie Carmichael a lot."

"Who's Susie Carmichael?"

Tommy answered Sam's question for Danny. "Susie's my new next door neighbor! She moved up here 'cause her daddy's job moved here from a different town."

"Wait a minute!" Tucker exclaimed. "Jobs can move to different towns?"

Tommy was about to say something to Tucker, when Danny interrupted. "I'm _not_ going to explain it again Tommy." he said. Then he continued. "Anyway, I think I hear footsteps. We'd better stop talking about 'you know who' now."

A few seconds later, Chuckie and Susie entered Tommy's room.

"Hi'ya, guys!" Susie exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Hi'ya, Susie!" Tommy greeted his new neighbor. "Me and Danny were just talking to our friends Sam and Tucker. Do you wanna say hi?"

Susie smiled and nodded. "Sure, why not?"

Tommy scooted over so Susie and Chuckie could have a spot to sit on the floor. "It's on speaker phone, so you don't haves to picks up the phone." he explained.

After a couple of brief introductions, Susie chatted with Sam and Tucker for a few minutes. "I can't wait to meet you guys in person." she said, happily. "You both seem very nice."

"Thanks, Susie!" Sam exclaimed. "You seem very nice too!"

"Thanks, Sam!"

Didi came upstairs to check on the four of them. "Okay, kids! It's time to get off the phone!"

Danny smiled at her. "Okay, Mrs. Pickles. I'll be downstairs in a second!"

Chuckie, Susie, and Tommy said goodbye to Sam and Tucker, and toddled out of the room.

Once Danny was sure his friends were out of earshot, he said, "Okay, you guys, I have to go downstairs, but before I do, I have a couple of things to tell you."

"Go ahead, dude!" Tucker said, excitedly. He knew when Danny had something important to say just to him and Sam, it meant business. Fun business that is.

"Okay." Danny glanced back out of Tommy's bedroom door just to make sure the babies weren't listening in. They weren't. "First of all, since Chuckie is into artwork now, Mrs. Pickles is taking us to an art museum later today."

"That's _so_ cool!" Sam exclaimed.

Danny nodded, even though his friends couldn't see him doing it. "The only thing is, is that the babies don't know yet. Mrs. Pickles said I'm not allowed to tell them."

"Why?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know. To surprise them I guess."

"Anyway," Sam interrupted him, "what else were you going to tell us?"

Danny grinned. "I think we have a new ghost group member!"

* * *

**_A_**bout an hour and a half later, the four of them were on their way to the art museum. Stu and Didi Pickles had already told them they were going after lunch. As promised, Danny pretended to be surprised.

Danny, who was looking out the car window moments before, glanced at Chuckie, who was sitting two seats away from him on his left. He was holding a small, red folder with both hands, and grinning excitedly. Didi had been to this museum before, and had told the kids that there was a Children's ArtCenter where people posted up the kids artwork on the walls.

Chuckie was looking forward to it, and hoped that at least one of his three pictures would get picked.

When they got to the museum, and found a good parking spot, the four kids were looking forward to see what kind of artistic creations were waiting for them. Chuckie was practically trying to pull Didi across the street. He was so excited.

"My goodness!" Didi exclaimed, surprised. "Chuckie, dear, slow down! Any minute your going to pull my arm out of its socket!"

Tommy, who was holding Stu's left hand, glanced at his mother worriedly.

Danny smiled at his playmate from Stu's right. "It's just an expression, Tommy." he explained.

Tommy grinned with relief, and quickly nodded.

Soon enough, the six of them entered the doors to the art museum. The babies stared around in awe. There were sculptures, drawings, and paintings everywhere. It was like someone took all of their imaginations out of their heads, and created it into a place full of color. They had never seen anything like it.

Chuckie was smiling all over the museum. He enjoyed the fact that something he loved to do was all in this one big place. He stopped looking around when he spotted a picture that really caught his eye.

"Hey, Danny!" Chuckie called out. "Come here!"

Danny quickly hurried to where his friend was standing. "What is it, Chuck?" he asked.

Chuckie pointed to the painting he was looking at. "Who's that girl in that painting?" he questioned.

Danny glanced at who Chuckie was talking about, and smiled. "That's the Mona Lisa." he answered. "But this is just a copy of the painting. The real one is somewhere else in the United States."

Chuckie tilted his head, trying to look at the picture from different angles. "Really?" he asked. Then he paused. "Wait a minute! Her name's the Moaning Lisa, but she's not moaning." He paused again, then walked off to take a look at the next picture. "That's inneresting!"

Danny was a little surprised by what Chuckie had just said. He had never said something was 'inneresting' in his whole life! Danny shrugged it off, thinking it was something he was saying because of his new hobby, and pulled his museum directory out of his left vest pocket. He walked over to where Didi was and told her he was going to take a look at some of the paintings.

Didi smiled and nodded. "Alright." she agreed. "Just stay where I can see you, Danny."

"Thanks, Mrs. Pickles!" Danny exclaimed.

He quickly opened his directory, and looked at the column where the paintings were. Danny soon decided to take a look at the painting called 'The Scream'. He had never seen that one before. He quickly walked down the hall.

* * *

**_ 'T_**he Scream' looked a lot like what Danny had expected. But, it also looked a lot different too. It was a man with a strangely shaped head screaming. But, it had a lot of red, orange, yellow, brown, and black colors too. They were both on the man's face and in the background.

'Wow!' Danny thought. 'Whoever painted this picture did a really good job!' He walked down the hall to look more paintings. After looking at paintings for awhile, Danny figured he should head back to where Mr. and Mrs. Pickles were. Chuckie was probably eager by now to get to the Children's ArtCenter.

As he was heading back down the hall, Danny heard a man's voice coming from behind him. "Hey, kid! Could you come over hear for a moment? I need to ask you a question."

Danny stopped, and hesitated. His parents had taught him and his sister Jazz to never talk to strangers. But it sounded like this guy really needed some help. So, instead of walking up to the stranger, Danny turned around to face him, and stood in the same spot a few feet away from the man. "Y-Yes, sir?" he asked, nervously.

The man smiled at Danny, and pointed to the directory map in his left hand. "Do you know where I can get one of those?" he asked.

He was a tall, skinny man, probably about six feet tall. He was bald with a bit of stubble on his face. The stranger wore a light blue button up shirt, with brown jeans, and black shoes. In a strange sort of way, it reminded Danny of one of those male school teachers you see in the movies.

Danny glanced down at his copy of the museum directory map, back up at the stranger, and quickly said, "A nice lady gave me one when I entered the museum." He glanced back down at the map. "But, you can have this one if you want. I have an extra copy."

Just to be safe, Danny set the directory map on the ground, and walked down the hall as fast as he could, away from the man. He heard the man saying, "Thanks, kid! You're a real help!"

Danny smiled to himself. He enjoyed helping people.

* * *

**_W_**hen Danny came back down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles ran up to him.

"Are you okay, Danny?" Didi asked, concerned. "We saw that man trying to talk to you, and we wanted to make sure you were alright."

Danny nodded. "I'm fine, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles. I stood a good distance away from him. He just wanted a map to the museum, so I gave him my extra copy."

Stu sighed. "Well, that's a relief!" he exclaimed. "Just remember to be careful if that ever happens again, Danny." he said, sternly.

Danny nodded once again, and the six of them headed to the Children's ArtCenter. It was a pretty big place, with lots of little kids there. Some were drawing and playing with clay at round tables. Some were painting pictures on easels. There were even a couple of babies in playpens scribbling on paper. The babies were amazed.

"Wow!" Susie exclaimed. "Look at all the art stuffs!"

"Yeah!" Tommy exclaimed. "It's really big! And look, Chuckie!" he said excitedly to his friend. "There's lots of pictures that babies drawed and painted hanging on the walls!"

Tommy was right about that. There were all sorts of drawings and paintings hanging on the bright, orange walls. All of them looked pretty cool.

Chuckie was grinning at all of the pictures. "How many of them do you think there are, Tommy?" he asked.

Tommy looked around the room some more, smiled, and shrugged. "I don't know." he replied. "Probably elevendey."

Chuckie nodded. "That's a pretty good guess, Tommy."

"Thanks, Chuckie!"

While Stu and Didi were checking the babies in, Chuckie headed over to the drawing table. The others followed.

"What are you going to draw this time, Chuck?" Danny asked, once he got close enough to the round table.

Chuckie smiled at his friend. "You'll see!" he exclaimed, taking a sheet of paper and an orange crayon from the middle of the table. He carefully started drawing.

About a minute later, Stu and Didi walked up to the four kids.

"Okay, kids!" Stu exclaimed. "Didi and I are going shopping for new parts of my latest invention." Stu worked as a kids' toy maker. Unfortunately, most of his toys never ended up working. But he never seemed to give up.

Didi quickly leaned down, and kissed Tommy on the forehead. "You be good sweetie." she said in a cutesy baby voice. "We'll be back in about an hour!"

Tommy smiled up at his mother, then turned back to try and look at Chuckie's latest drawing. But, of course, he wouldn't let him.

As Stu and Didi were leaving the Children's ArtCenter, Danny suddenly realized something. He started searching through his vest pockets, then patted both his side and back jean pockets. "Uh, oh!" he cried.

"What is it, Danny?" Susie asked.

"I think I dropped the box of crayons I brought with me somewhere." he replied. "They aren't in any of my pockets!"

"Well, maybe you just dropped it somewheres in the ArtsCenter!" Tommy exclaimed. "We'll helps you looks for them!"

Chuckie quickly slipped his drawing into his red folder, then the four of them started looking for Danny's box of crayons. They checked behind the counter and in the bathrooms. They even asked some of the babies if they had seen it. But, no matter where they looked, they just couldn't seem to find those crayons!

While the kids were still searching, two janitors in dark green suits came walking into the Children's ArtCenter. Danny glanced up to have a look at them. One of them was the tall, bald, skinny man that Danny had met earlier. The other man was also bald, but he was much shorter and heavier than his friend. He was also wearing a dark, green baseball cap.

The tall man walked up to the counter where the young lady who was watching all of the babies was sitting. He smiled at her then said, "The regular janitors called in sick today, and we're their replacements." he explained. "We were told that the mops, buckets, and toilet scrubbers were in here."

The lady smiled at the two men. "May I ask what your name is sir?" she asked. "It's for security reasons."

The tall man nodded. "I'm Zack, and this is my partner Jerald."

The chubby man took off his baseball cap. "How do you do Madam?" he asked, then put his cap back on.

"Just fine, thank you!" the lady replied, looking at the list of employees. "Yes, you two are on the list." She handed the museum keys to the skinny man. "Here are the keys to the whole museum, and to the janitor's closet. Thanks for coming on such sort notice."

"No problem!" Jerald exclaimed. "That's what we're here to do! Clean!"

They both headed over to the janitor's closet near the bathrooms. As soon as they got the supplies they needed from the closet, the two men hurried out of the Children's ArtCenter.

Danny then decided to look underneath the tables. He knew that the babies hadn't looked there for his crayons yet. As he was searching around the tables, Danny spotted his box of crayons near the small entrance door to the ArtCenter. He crawled over toward the door, that way he wouldn't pop up and scare any of the kids at the tables, and quickly grabbed his box of crayons.

Just as he was about to stand up, Danny heard a voice outside of the door. "What do we do now, Mark?" it asked.

Danny slowly stood up, and took a quick peek outside of the door. It was the two substitute janitors who had just left just a few seconds ago. But why did Jerald call the skinny man Mark? Danny was totally confused.

He slowly ducked down so the janitors wouldn't see him. Danny figured he better listen in on the conversation. It could be important.

Danny heard Mark shush his friend. "Be quiet, Jasper!" he whispered. "We don't want anybody listening in on us!"

'Jasper?' Danny thought. 'He said his name was Jerald to the lady behind the counter.' He put his ear to the door so he could hear them better.

"Who's going to listen in?" Jasper asked. "The babies and kids in the ArtCenter? They wouldn't understand what we were saying anyway. They aren't very bright."

Danny frowned at this. 'Neither are you, buddy.' he thought.

"You're right." Mark replied. "But, listen. This what we're going to do. We've already taken care of the real substitute janitors. And I've got the map of the museum right here!"

Danny heard Jasper gasp. "Where did you get that?" he asked, with a surprised tone of voice.

"Well," Mark explained, happily, "since we snuck in through the back door of the museum, I couldn't walk to the lady at the entrance door. She wouldn't have recognized us!" He paused, then continued. "So, I just asked this little boy where he got his map, and he was nice enough to give me his extra copy."

"Anyway," Mark continued, "that's not important! I need to explain to you how we're going to deal with The Mona Lisa!"

"Yeah." Jasper sighed. "I'm sure she's really pretty."

Danny stuck out his tongue in disgust. He was startled by a huge slap.

"She's not a person, Jasper!" Mark whispered, madly. "It's a painting of a girl!"

"Oh." Jasper replied, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Now," Mark continued, "here's the plan. We pretend we're cleaning the floors, right? And then we'll '_happen_' to walk past the copy of The Mona Lisa."

"Okay."

"Then we'll trade it with this copy of The Mona Lisa I bought from the museum's gift shop. We'll then get on an airplane, and go to the big museum to steal the _real_ copy of The Mona Lisa. Are you with me so far?"

"Uh, huh."

"Then we'll replace the real copy of the Mona Lisa with the one hanging around somewhere in this museum, fly back here, go to our headquarters where our boss is, and we'll be rich!" Mark laughed. "It's a fool proof plan! Nobody can stop us!"

"That's great, Mark!" Jasper exclaimed. "Except there's one thing I don't get."

"What's that?" Mark asked, irritated. "I thought I explained the plan pretty clear enough."

"Oh, you did a good job explaining it to me, Mark!" Jasper said. "It's just that, if we're going to give The Mona Lisa to the boss, how are we going to get the cash?"

Danny was startled again by another slap.

"Jasper, you idiot!" Mark whispered, sternly. "Our boss is going to give us the money!"

"But where will he get the cash?" Jasper asked.

"Where do you _think_ he's going to get the cash?"

"Um, I don't know." Jasper said, hesitantly. "The money making place?"

Mark sighed. "It comes from…well, never mind! We need to get to work before the guards come back from their lunch break!"

Once Danny heard the footsteps start going down the hall, then fading away, he quickly stood up and ran past the art tables, trying to look for his friends.

'Oh my gosh!' Danny thought, panicking. 'I just gave directions to _two_ criminals!'


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Bartman Returns

**_T_**ommy was flipping through some art books when Danny approached him. He would hold the book from both ends, shake it, place it carefully on the bookshelf, and grab the next book off the shelf. Tommy had just placed another book on the bookshelf when he spotted his playmate.

"So, did you finds your box of crams, Danny?" he asked, eagerly.

"Yeah." Danny replied. "I found them near the doorway."

"That's great!" Tommy exclaimed. "'Sides, I was getting kind of tired of looking for them in these books. Did you know The Mona Lisa is in some of these books, too?"

Danny shook his head. "No, I didn't." He paused. "But that's gonna have to wait. Tommy, could you go find Susie, while I find Chuck? We'll all meet back here at the bookshelf."

Tommy nodded, turned around, and toddled across the room. Danny went in the other direction.

* * *

**_D_**anny met Susie and Tommy back at the bookshelf with an eager expression on his face. "I've looked all over the room for Chuck, but I can't find him anywhere!" he exclaimed. "This is really important!"

Tommy grinned. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "I sawed Chuckie looking at the paintings on the other side of the room!"

Danny face turned into an angry expression. "Why didn't you bring him back here then?" he asked.

"'Cause," Tommy replied, "you told me to goes and finds Susie! I didn't knows we was playing hide and go peek!"

Susie suddenly smiled. "Did you say we're gonna play hide and go peek?" she asked, excitedly. "I love that game!"

Danny sighed, and ran to the painting side of the room. He soon returned with Chuckie, who was a little bit annoyed to be pulled away from all of the paintings he was looking at.

Chuckie also looked a little bit puzzled. "What are we doing?"

"Danny said we're gonna play hide and go peek!" Susie exclaimed.

Chuckie grinned. "Okay!" he replied. "Just, don't make me goes into any dark and scary places!"

Danny groaned. "We are not gonna play hide and go seek!" he cried.

"Then why did you tell us to comes here?"

"Because, someone's gonna rob the museum!"

The three toddlers stared at Danny blankly.

Danny sighed. "Someone's gonna steal The Mona Lisa!"

The babies gasped.

"B-But, why would someone wants to do thats?" Chuckie asked, nervously. "The Moaning Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world! No one can steal it!"

"No one maybe." Danny replied. "But how about two?"

"What are you talking about, Danny?" Tommy asked.

"You know those two substitute janitors that came in here a few minutes ago?"

The babies nodded.

"I heard them talking when I found my box of crayons near the doorway." Danny explained. "They aren't the real substitute janitors! They must've locked the real janitors somewhere in the museum before they got here! Now, they're gonna steal The Mona Lisa, and trade it for a lot of money!"

Susie grinned. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed. "You don't have to worry about it anymore, Danny!"

"Huh?" Danny asked, puzzled.

"I mean, if those really _are_ bad guys, and they're trying to steal The Moaning Lisa, they won't knows wheres to look for it!"

Tommy smiled. "She's right, Danny!" he exclaimed. "It'll take them forevers to finds it! After all, they don't gots a map or anything!"

Danny glanced at his playmate, bit his bottom lip and looked downward. "Actually," he mumbled, "they do."

"What do you means?"

"I mean," Danny gulped, looked back downward, and quietly said, "I gave one to them."

"WHAT?!" Susie and Tommy gasped.

Danny was still looking down at the floor, shamefully.

Chuckie walked up to his friend and said sympathetically, "What we're trying to ask you, Danny is, WHY DID YOU GIVES A MAP TO THE BAD GUYS?!"

"I-I didn't mean to!" he stuttered. "I-I met the skinny guy earlier, a-and h-he seemed r-really nice, a-and I just w-wanted to help a-and," Danny suddenly groaned and cried, "AAAAHHHH! I'M TOO YOUNG TO GO TO JAIL!"

Tommy toddled up to his playmate and patted him on the back. "Don't worry, Danny!" he exclaimed. "We'll stops those bad guys!"

"But, Tommy!" Chuckie cried, with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "We're only babies! Do you heres me? Ba-bies! We can't do this!"

Danny glanced up a him. "That isn't what you said when we went to LakeEerie!"

"Yeah, well, I'm much olderer and wiserer now!"

Tommy was grinning to himself. A plan was forming in his mind. "I thinks I gots an idea that just might works!" he exclaimed. "But we're gonna needs one of us to come up with some other plans in case mine doesn't work!"

"Don't looks at me!" Chuckie cried.

Tommy glanced at Susie.

"I gots nothing!" Susie exclaimed.

Tommy looked at Danny hopefully.

"I'm blank this time, Tommy." Danny replied.

Tommy frowned. "Okay." he replied. "I guess we're gonna haves to gets someone else to comes up with the extra plans!"

"But, Tommy!" Chuckie exclaimed. "Who are we gonna gets? Sam, Tucker, Phil, and Lil are offs somewheres, we don't knows any of these babies, and Angelica's gone somewheres too! Plus, she really wouldn't be a real help anyways!"

"We're just gonna haves to thinks, Chuckie!"

The four kids thought for a moment, when an idea struck the three boys.

"Are you thinking of who I'm thinking of?" Danny asked, seeing his friends giant grins.

Chuckie nodded. "I thinks so!"

Tommy also gave a triumphant nod, and exclaimed, "Bart Simpson!"

* * *

**_B_**eep! Boop! Boop! Beep!

It was raining in Springfield, nothing good was on the TV, and it was a very boring day. But, luckily, one little boy was entertaining himself. He had just taken the phone, and was pressing the buttons at random.

He put the phone up to his ear, and soon heard the dial tone. Even sooner, someone answered it.

"Hello?" the voice answered. "This is Moe's Tavern. I'm Moe. How can I help you?"

"Hello?" the little boy replied. "My name's Bart. One of my friends is in your tavern place, and I'd like to speak to her!"

"Okay, little guy!" Moe said, sweetly. "What's her name?"

"Her first name," Bart started, "is Ihava. Her last name is Constipationproblem."

"Okay, just a second!" Moe cried. Bart could hear his victim yelling, "Ihava Constipationproblem, there's a call for you!" When nobody answered, Moe yelled, "Do I have a Constipationproblem, here?"

Bart then heard laughter.

When Moe finally got the joke, he yelled into the phone, "WHY YOU LITTLE-,"

But Bart was laughing too hard to hear Moe's reply. He quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the kitchen table, and copied the number on his phone. "I'm saving this number for later!" Bart whispered happily to himself.

"Bart!" a voice called. "It's time to get off the phone with Milhouse! I need to use the phone!"

"Okay, Mommy!" Bart replied, sweetly. He waved to the cordless phone. "Talk to ya later, Milhouse!"

"Milhouse?" Moe asked, angry and puzzled. "What are you-,"

That's when Bart hung up. He smiled, shook his head, and said to himself, "Danny was right! In order to control my temper, all I needed was a hobby!"

Bart toddled into the living room where his parents were.

"Hi'ya, Mommy!" he exclaimed. "Here's your phone!" He quickly gave his Mom the phone with both hands.

Bart turned around, and passed his father. "Hi'ya, Homer!"

Homer Simpson, a fat, yellow man with brown hair that was starting to bald, glanced away from the TV for a moment, and smiled at his son. "Now, Bart," he started, "we've discussed this before. Homer is what grown-ups call me! You are my son, so you call me Daddy!"

"But, you always go by my real name, Bart!" Bart exclaimed. "Not son! I wanna call you Homer!"

"Listen, _son_." Homer said, sternly. "You call me Daddy. Got it?"

"Homer!" Bart cried, happily.

"No, Bart. Daddy."

"Homer!"

"Daddy!"

"Homer!"

"Daddy!"

Bart smirked, and stuck out his tongue. "Homer! Nah! Nah! Nah!"

Homer was getting angry now. "WHY YOU LITTLE-,"

"Homer!" Marge cried, angrily.

Bart smiled and pointed at his mom. "See!" he exclaimed. "Mommy calls you Homer!"

Just as Bart was about to head out of the living room and up to his room, Marge stopped him. "Bart, could you do me a favor please?"

"Anything, Mommy!"

Marge lifted Bart's one-month-old baby sister, Lisa and carefully set her into Bart's arms. "Could you please take Lisa with you up to your room for awhile?"

"But, Mommy!" Bart whined. "I've been watching her all day! I need my personal space! Do you know how many times she's pooped up in my room today?"

Marge nodded. "Four times." she replied. "And the fourth one was yours!

"Yeah, well…" Bart was trying to think up a good argument. "I can poop in my own room if I want to! She can't!"

"Bart!"

"It's my room! She stoled my crib!"

"BART!"

Bart sighed. "Fine. You win! I'll take her up to my room!"

Lisa slowly reached up and yanked at a piece of Bart's spikey hair.

"Ow!" Bart yelled, rubbing his head.

Lisa giggled at her older brother.

"Mommy!" Bart yelled. "Did you see what she just did?"

Marge nodded. "I saw."

"Aren't you gonna punish her?"

"Bart, how am I going to punish her? She only one month old!"

Bart sighed, and slowly walked up the stairs with Lisa in his arms. "You're very lucky!" he mumbled.

Lisa giggled again, and pulled on another piece of Bart's hair.

"Ow!" Bart cried.

"Tart." Lisa exclaimed.

"No, Lisa! I'm Bart!"

"Tart!"

"Bart!"

"Tart!"

"Bart!"

Lisa smirked at her brother, and stuck out her tongue. "Tart! Nah! Nah! Nah!"

Bart glared at his younger sister. "Hey!" he cried. "You can't take that comeback! That's my comeback!"

Lisa giggled.

Bart sighed. 'This is gonna be a _long_ day.' he thought.

* * *

**_O_**nce Bart and Lisa got up to Bart's room, Bart set Lisa onto his bed with Krusty the Clown bed sheets. Actually, that was practically all of what Bart's room was. Krusty the Clown bed, clocks, toys, toothpaste, you name it. Bart had all of the Krusty the Clown collectibles. In fact, it was Bart's Krusty Clown pregnancy test that Marge used to find out she was pregnant with Lisa. Now Bart wished his Mom hadn't used it. He was just realizing that he wasn't enjoying being the big brother he had wanted to be.

Lisa suddenly grinned and pointed to the floor. "Bear!"

Bart glanced down at the floor and picked up his stuffed, brown bear. Lisa giggled, grabbed the bear from Bart's hands, and hugged it lovingly.

"No, Lisa!" Bart cried. "You can't play with Mr. Snuggles!" He yanked the bear out of his sister's hands.

Lisa started whimpering.

Bart started to panic. "No, Lisa!" he cried. "Please don't cry! Mom and Dad will hear you!"

The tears started forming in Lisa's eyes.

"Okay! Okay!" Bart said, trying to calm her down. "I know! I'll find you something else to play with!" He rushed to his closet and started tossing out toys behind him. "There's gotta be something in here you'll want to play with!"

But Bart couldn't find anything that would get Lisa's interest. Suddenly, he heard a voice. "GBBS Number Eight! Number Eight! Come in!"

"Wait a minute!" Bart cried. "I'm Number Eight!" He started searching through his closet some more. "Where's that walkie-talkie?"

When Bart couldn't find it in his closet, he started searching for the walkie-talkie in the pile beside his bed. When he couldn't find it in there, he slowly got up, disappointed. Bart glanced at Lisa, and happened to see her chewing on his walkie-talkie.

Bart gasped. "Lisa!" he cried, running up to her, and grabbing the walkie-talkie from her hands. "That isn't for-, EWW! BABY DROOL!" He wiped the spit from his hand, onto his red and white striped shirt. Bart turned to glare at his little sister. "Thanks, Lisa!" he said sarcastically.

Lisa smiled at her older brother.

Bart pressed the talk button on his walkie-talkie. "This is GBBS Number Eight! I read you loud and clear Number One!"

Bart heard his friend Danny sigh into the walkie-talkie. "Thank goodness!" he exclaimed. "I thought you weren't going to answer. By the way, are you feeling okay? I thought I heard some gurgling noises in the background."

This time Bart sighed into the walkie-talkie. "Yeah. I'm fine Danny." he replied. "Lisa got a hold of the walkie-talkie, and started drooling on it!"

Danny laughed. "Is Lisa up in your room?"

"Yes." Bart replied glumly.

Danny laughed once again. "Hi there, Little Lisa! What's happening?"

Lisa smiled, pointed to the walkie-talkie and cried, "Banny! Banny!"

"She said hi to you!" Bart said, irritably. "Now, did you want to tell me something?"

"Yeah." Danny answered. "How would you like to help us catch two criminals?"

Bart gasped with excitement. "_Real_ criminals? Are they armed?"

"No, Bart. Why would they need to be armed? They're stealing a painting!"

"A painting?" Bart asked, puzzled. "Where the heck are you anyway?"

"Me, Chuckie, Tommy, and Tommy's new neighbor Susie are at a museum nearby the Pickles' house."

"A museum?" Bart groaned. "Danny, why out of all of the places in the world, did you choose the most boringnest one?"

"I didn't exactly _choose_ where the criminals were going to be, Bart."

Bart sighed. "Okay," he replied, "I'll do it. But wait, what should I do with Lisa? I can't eggactly leaves her heres by herself or I'll gets into troubles!"

"Then ask your Mom if you can take her with you!"

Bart nodded, even though Danny couldn't see him doing it. "Okay, I'll try! I hopes to sees you in about fifteen minutes!"

He then turned off the walkie-talkie, grabbed Lisa, and quickly walked out of the room.

* * *

**_ "S_**orry I took so long you guys!" Bart exclaimed, when he rushed into The Children's ArtCenter half an hour later. "My Mommy was busy, so I had to begs Homer to take me."

Danny nodded. "I understand. But that's not important right now. We've got to catch these bad guys before-, Hi Little Lisa!"

Lisa giggled. "Hi'ya, Banny!"

"Aww!" Susie cooed. "Your baby sister is _so_ cute, Bart!"

Bart rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Little Lisa!" Chuckie exclaimed. "Look at me! I can make a funny face!" He squinted his eyes, and stuck out his tongue.

Lisa laughed once again. "Chubby funny!"

Tommy grinned at Lisa, then exclaimed, "You're lucky, Bart! I wish I had a little brother or sister."

"Yeah," Bart said, absentmindedly, putting Lisa in the playpen behind his friends, "lucky. So, where are these two criminals you guys were talking about?"

"Probably on their way to The Mona Lisa right now!" Danny answered.

"Lisa?" Lisa asked worriedly.

"No, nots you!" Bart cried, glancing at his little sister. "Anyway, Danny, you were saying?"

Danny raised an eyebrow at his friend. "Are you okay, Bart?"

"Yeah, man! Why wouldn't I be?"

Danny shrugged. He was going to have to talk to him later. "Well, we'd better start thinking of a plan! I know Tommy has an idea. Bart, do you have any suggestions?"

Bart grinned slyly, and pulled off the dark, blue backpack he had brought along with him. "I may have a few tricks up my sleeves!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Catching Some Bad Guys

**_ T_**ommy grinned at the piece of paper the babies used to plot out their plan. "Nice work, you guys! Now, it's time to sneak outta here!"

Lisa started to whimper once again.

Bart turned around to face her. "Don't worry, Lisa! We'll be back in about an hour! Now, stay put in that playpen!"

Danny frowned at Bart, then turned to his friends. "Chuck, Tommy, Susie, you guys go ahead and wait for us down the hall, and be careful! We'll catch up with you in a minute!"

Susie, Chuckie, and Tommy glanced at each other, shrugged, and headed toward the entranceway toward The Children's Art Center.

Once he was sure the three of them weren't within earshot, Danny put his right hand on Bart's right shoulder. "I need to talk to you, Bart." he said, sternly.

Danny quickly said goodbye to Lisa, then pulled Bart aside. "What's going on, Bart?" he asked. "You haven't really been being nice to Lisa lately."

Bart glared at Danny. "_That_'_s_ why you wanted to talk to me? About me and my dumb old baby sister?"

"Bart!"

"See!" Bart exclaimed, angrily. "That's what I'm talking about! It's always, 'Bart watch your sister!' or 'Bart! Stop bugging Lisa!' or 'Bart! She can't help it! She's just a baby!' Well, she's not the only baby in our house, you know!" He turned around, crossed his arms, and glared at the floor.

Danny sighed. "Listen, Bart." he started. "You're going through a state of jealously and lack of attention. And that's okay. I mean, you're the new big brother of the house, and you've got to learn how to play with Lisa and share your toys with her, and have your parents fuss over her. I should know. Jazz was the same way with me!"

Bart was still glaring at the floor.

"Look," Danny continued, "what I'm trying to tell you is, eventually, you'll grow to love Lisa, and-,"

Bart suddenly spun around to glare back at his friend. "No I won't!" he yelled. "I don't love my new sister, and I never will!" He grabbed his backpack, and dashed out of the room.

Danny started to run after him. "Bart!" he cried. "Wait!" He suddenly paused, and glanced at Lisa.

She wasn't whimpering anymore, but she looked a little sad. Could she _actually_ have understood what Bart had just said?

Danny shook his head at the thought. 'No. She couldn't have understood what me and Bart were saying! At least, not much of it. She's an infant!' He ran out of the room, before the lady behind the desk could see him.

* * *

**_T_**he only problem was that Lisa was a gifted child, and she understood what anybody said. She had heard the whole conversation between Danny and Bart, even though she couldn't talk. Much.

Lisa sighed. 'I wish Danny was my big brother.' she thought. 'He would at least be nice to me.'

* * *

**_ "I _**mean," Bart was explaining to the four of his friends, "who wants to hang out with a baby who doesn't do anything, anyways?"

"Um," Chuckie said, nervously, "I do."

Bart growled at him.

"C'mon, Bart!" Susie exclaimed. "She's your sister! I gots an older sister, and two older brothers. I don't gots any younger brothers or sisters. You should be glad!"

"Glad!" Bart cried. "What do you mean glad?"

* * *

**_ D_**anny sighed, as the five of them hid in different spots in the hall. "You know, Bart," he started, "you're being way too harsh!"

Bart shrugged. "It's never stopped me afore." he stated, simply.

Bart, Chuckie, and Danny were hiding behind a wall on one side of the hall, while Susie and Tommy were hiding behind a small trash can a few feet away from them. Danny had given Tommy one of his walkie-talkies, so they could communicate with each other. Tommy was going to give the warning to Danny when the bad guys came.

"You know," Chuckie admitted, "Danny's right Bart! You've gots to gives your sister a chance!"

Bart glared at him.

"Or," Chuckie added, "you don't haves to if you don't wants to! Please don't hurts me!"

"Number One!" Tommy's voice came out of the walkie-talkie. "The bad guys are coming this way!"

"Okay." Danny replied. "Thanks, Tommy! I mean, Number Two!" He turned the volume down on his walkie-talkie, and put it in his pocket. "Are you ready, Bart?"

Bart nodded. "Why do we need to use these number names, anyways?"

"Just in case anyone's listening in."

"Who's gonna be listening in? These are walkie-talkies, not radios!"

Danny shrugged. "You can never be too careful about these things Bart."

Bart rolled his eyes.

* * *

**_"O_**kay, Jasper!" Mark exclaimed, as he looked down at the directory map. "This is it! The copy of The Mona Lisa should be somewhere down this hallway!"

Jasper nodded excitedly. "Soon, we'll be rolling around in cash!"

Mark grinned at his partner in crime. "Now you're talking!"

As the two men were laughing hysterically about their evil deed, Bart Simpson started limping toward them. As he got closer to them, he started to cry, and slowly sat down on the dirty museum floor.

"Hey, Mark!" Jasper exclaimed. "There's a baby crying over there!"

Mark shrugged. "Just ignore him, Jasper! He's not doing anything we don't want him to do!"

"But," Jasper lowered his voice to a whisper, "what if we try to steal the painting, and he rats us out?"

"You've got a point there." Mark paused. "Well, don't just stand there! Go and get him out of here!"

"All right! All right!" Jasper put his hands up in front of him defensively. "All you had to do was tell me!" He slowly turned around to face Bart. "Okay, then kid!" he mumbled. "Go on! Scram!"

Bart cried louder.

Mark sighed. "Now look what you did, Jasper! You made him even more upset!"

"Hey! What did I do?"

Mark sighed once again, and cried, "Look, I'll handle this, all right?"

Jasper nodded quickly.

Mark slowly walked up to Bart, and bent down next to him. "What's wrong kid?" he asked. "Are you lost?"

Bart sniffled for a few minutes.

"Stop sniffing kid! I don't got all day!"

Bart hesitated, "Well…"

"Yes?"

"I-I was on my w-way to the bathroom t-to wash my h-hands, w-when I felled d-down, and gots a boo-boo o-on my k-knee." Bart pointed to a tiny, bleeding cut on his left knee, and burst out crying again. "I want my Mommy!"

Mark shushed him. After all, he didn't want anyone coming out to see what was going on. What if someone found out what they were up to? "Okay, kid!" he cried. "Calm down! Where's your Mommy?"

Bart sniffed, then said, "Down the h-hall." He pointed to his right. "B-But, I'm t-too ascared to goes down t-there all by m-myself!"

Mark sighed. "I'll walk with you. You tell me where to go."

Bart smiled up him innocently. "Thank you, kind sir!"

Mark took Bart's hand. They slowly started trudging down the hallway.

'Suckers!' Bart thought happily.

* * *

**_ D_**anny and Chuckie, who had been watching Bart from behind the wall, thought he had put up a pretty good act. Their plan was working perfectly.

"Number Two," Danny said into the walkie-talkie, "Number Nine, you guys try and find the janitors behind all of the closed doors. Number Four and I will mess with the bad guys!"

Chuckie's eyes widened with fear as Danny said this. "What!" he cried. "I'm nots gonna go after no bad guys!"

Danny sighed, and pressed the button on his walkie-talkie again. "On second thought, Number Two, you come help me mess with the bad guys, and Number Four will help Number Nine out with finding the janitors."

"I'll be there in a minute, Danny. Uh, I mean, Number One!" Tommy exclaimed into the walkie-talkie. He stood up from behind the garbage can, and walked five steps forward to where Danny and Chuckie were. Chuckie ran a few feet toward the garbage can.

Tommy smiled at Danny. "Wow!  
Bart's really good at pretending!" he exclaimed.

Danny smiled back at his playmate. "That's one of the many useful things an eyedropper full of warm water, and mini packs of ketchup will do for you!" He laughed. "Now," Danny continued, as he pulled a large can out of Bart's backpack, "I'll go and make those guys some nice hats out of silly string, while you," he grabbed a brown paper bag out of his small, light blue bag, "go and make them lose their marbles!"

Tommy grinned. "This is gonna be a real adventure!"

* * *

**_ T_**ruthfully, Bart was a little nervous holding hands with a man who was about to steal The Mona Lisa, and trade it in for something valuable. Still, he knew Danny and one of the babies would help him get away from Mark at the end of the hallway. He just didn't know exactly what they were planning to do.

Bart slowly let his right hand reach toward his diaper, so Mark wouldn't spot him. The can of silly string he had brought with him was still there. He sighed. 'Danny had better know what he's doing.' Bart thought stubbornly. He didn't want this whole plan to turn into a catastrophe.

Soon, Bart and the bad guy approached the end of the hall. 'Now what?' Bart thought, starting to panic.

"Okay, kid!" Mark sighed. "I took you to the end of the hallway. Now, where's your mom?"

"I-I-I-" Bart stuttered. He was really starting to panic now. He needed to think of an answer quickly before Mark caught on to what he was doing. As Bart was doing this, he thought he saw a swift motion of Danny's hand, telling him to come down the next hallway.

He shook his head to get the image out of his mind. 'I'm panicking so much, I'm seeing things!' Bart thought.

But it wasn't his imagination. This time he saw Danny's hand waving him toward the next hallway. Bart gave Mark a big grin and cried, "I thinks I see her down the next hallway!" He put a scared look on his face. "Will you takes me down there, peas?"

Mark hesitated, and glanced to his left to where Jasper was. His partner was giving him a sad, puppy-dog face. Mark closed his eyes, and sighed. "Okay, kid." he replied. "We'll take you down the next hallway."

Bart hugged Mark's right leg, and smiled up at him. "Thank you Mr.'s!"

While walking down the next hallway, Bart came to realize something. 'How come when I get here, there's a bunch of people in the halls, but when five babies are trying to catch two criminals, nobody's out here to see any of the action?' He glanced around, then shrugged. 'I appose it's better this way.' Bart thought. 'After alls, we don't wants to gets into any troubles!'

Once Bart and the two bad guys reached their destination, Mark started to get angry. "Okay, kid! I don't see your mom here either! What kind of game are you playing?"

Bart was trying to give him a quick answer, but nothing came to him.

"Bart, now!" Danny cried.

Bart knew what to do now. He quickly grabbed the large spray can out of his diaper, and sprayed orange silly string all over Mark's face!

"Gah!" Mark groaned. He couldn't see a thing! "Jasper, wherever you are, grab the kid!"

Jasper started running toward Bart, but Danny beat him to him. He gave Jasper a good dose of purple silly string on his face as well. Jasper stumbled and fell to the ground. Hard.

"Come on!" Danny exclaimed to Bart. "This way!"

The two boys dashed down the left hallway. Unfortunately, Mark had wiped enough of the silly string off his face to see where they had gone.

"Jasper!" he cried, quickly glancing around. He found his partner sitting on the ground, wiping the silly string off his face.

Jasper sighed, then asked, "Shouldn't we help that little boy find his mom before we go chasing after them?"

"Oh, get up you idiot!" Mark said angrily. "That little boy didn't need any help at all! He was helping that boy I got the map from! They know what we're up to!"

"You mean," Jasper started, "we were _tricked_?"

"Well, of course we were tricked you doofus!" Mark exclaimed. "We've got to stop them!"

The two criminals dashed down the hall after the babies.

Luckily, Bart, Danny, and Tommy were waiting for them at the other end of the hall.

"Now, Tommy!" Danny whispered.

Tommy untied the string on the small, brown paper bag, and dumped all of the marbles from it. Mark had spotted the marbles, but just as he stopped, nearly running into the marbles, Jasper ran into him, and they both hit the ground with a sickening crash.

"Okay!" Danny exclaimed. "Now let's run!"

The three boys dashed down the next hallway.

"Chuckie and Susie have checked this floor for the two janitors already." Danny explained to Bart and Tommy. "They're checking the second floor right now, so, let's check the third floor!"

"They're hiding the janitors inside floors?" Tommy asked, puzzled. He glanced at Bart who also looked confused.

"Somehow I thinks Danny's been reading way too many mystery books." Bart replied.

* * *

**_ "W_**here ares they, Susie?" Chuckie asked, carefully closing another door. "Danny said they would be heres soon!"

The two kids had been searching for the janitors for about twenty minutes now, and Chuckie already thought it seemed like he and Susie had opened their one hundredth door.

Susie slowly shut another door, and shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm getting worried, Chuckie! What if they gots themselves into some kind of trouble?"

Chuckie shuddered. "I don't wants to thinks about it!" He sighed exhaustedly. "Let's just keeps searching. We don't wants to worry too much about our friends."

Susie nodded. "Good idea!"

They went off into another hallway, and searched through some more doors. Then once that one was done, they tried the next hallway. Then they went off to the next hallway. Unfortunately, the janitors weren't behind any of those doors!

Eventually, Chuckie was tired of opening doors. "Okay," he said to Susie, "I'm gonna opens one more door, and if the janitors aren't behind this one, I'm gonna wait until Danny, Tommy, and Bart gets here!" He quickly turned the knob, pulled the door open, and gasped. "Susie, I founded them!"

Susie ran excitedly to where Chuckie was. He was right. The two janitors were sitting inside the closet, with their hands tied up behind their backs, and feet tied up in front of them with red rope. They also had tape over their mouths.

"Great job, Chuckie!" Susie exclaimed, hugging him.

Chuckie's cheeks turned red. "It was nothing, really." he said, modestly. "But we'd better untie these guys afore our friends gets heres."

Susie ran into the closet, and untied both of the janitors, while Chuckie slowly, but carefully peeled the tape from their mouths.

The janitor on the right side of the closet sighed with relief, then exclaimed, "Thanks for rescuing us kids! How did you know where to find us?"

Susie grinned. "We overheard those bad guys in The Children's Art Center! They put you guys in here so they could steal the Moaning Lisa!"

The second janitor groaned. "So _that_'_s_ what they're up to! We've got to get the police here! And fast!"

A minute later, Bart, Danny, and Tommy ran up to them.

"Alright!" Bart exclaimed. "You founded them!"

Susie nodded. "Yep! Did you take care of the bad guys?"

"Almost." Danny replied. "We've got to call the police. Those crooks could come running up here any minute!"

"I'll go!" the first janitor replied. "There's a payphone right outside the museum. Jerald, you stay here and watch the kids!"

Jerald nodded. "Right, Zack."

Zack ran as quickly as he could down the stairs. Soon, he was out of sight.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Jerald's Story

**_"L_**isten, man," Bart said, turning to Jerald, "sorry your firstest day substituting heres didn't turn out so good."

Jerald smiled down at Bart, and rubbed his hair with his left hand. "It's okay little guy. Thanks for trying to catch those bad guys for us. But, you know, it's not the safest thing to do." He turned to face the babies. "You guys could've gotten hurt."

"That's true." Danny replied. "We probably should've told someone in the first place." He paused, then said, "I'm _so_ going to be grounded for the rest of spring break."

Jerald grinned. "We'll see about that, kid. We'll see."

Danny smiled at him, frowned, then asked, "So, what did those bad guys have against you and Zack? I mean, why did they just stuff you in a closet like that?"

Jerald sighed deeply. "What don't they have against me?" he asked. "Mark and Jasper have been good friends for a long time. I never liked that Mark kid one bit."

"Wait!" Susie exclaimed. "You _know_ those bad guys?"

"I do." Jerald replied calmly. "Jasper's my little brother."

The babies gasped.

"W-Why, did he become such a bad guy?" Bart asked. "I mean, you're so nice. How come he treated you this way?"

Jerald rubbed Bart's hair again. "I wasn't always a nice person, little guy. In fact," he paused, "I guess you could say I was kind of a jerk when I was a kid. When my parents would tell me to clean my room, I wouldn't do it. Whenever my Mom and Dad told me to do my homework, I would forget about it. Whenever my parents would tell me to watch or play with Jasper, I would refuse." He sighed. "But now I wish I go back in time, and change all that. I would do anything I could to make Jasper the good person that he used to be."

Bart nodded at him. Just like Jerald, he felt like _he_ was the criminal. 'I don't mean to be mean to Lisa.' he thought. 'I just wanted some more attentions, that's all.' Bart sighed. He felt extremely guilty.

"Looks, man," Bart started, "I haven't been such a good big brother either. My new little sister is still in The Children's Art Center, and I guess you could say that I've been kind of a jerk to her too." He paused, then patted Jerald on the leg. "I'm sorry that happened to you and Jasper." Bart suddenly smiled. "But the good news is he hasn't changed completely! I mean, when Mark wanted to steals the painting when I was pretending to cry, Jasper wanted to helps me finds my Mom.

"Anyway, when the police comes to get him and Mark, please goes and visits Jasper in jail, and tries talking to him. Tells him we was trying to helps him. Tells him _you_'_re_ trying to helps him. I knows he'll probably ignore you at first. But, if you keeps trying, I _knows_ he'll listen to you eventually and will become a good guy. I just _knows_ it."

Jerald nodded. "I think you're right, little guy. I think you're right."

* * *

**_ T_**he police arrived soon enough. The babies had showed where Mark and Jasper were. They were soon handcuffed, and taken out to a police car. The two crooks would be taken to the police office for questioning.

"So, does this mean we're not getting any money?" Jasper asked Mark, while entering the police car.

"Shut up, Jasper." Mark replied.

While Jerald and Zack explained their side of the story, Danny turned to Bart and said, "I've gotta hand it to you, Bart. You really did learn a valuable lesson today about brothers and sisters getting along."

Bart nodded, glancing at his little sister in his arms. "I guess being a big brother isn't so bad after all!" he stated, simply.

Lisa giggled. "Bart!"

Bart gasped. "Did you guys hears that?" he asked incredulously. "She finally said my name right! Says it again Lisa!"

"Bart!"

Tommy laughed. "I guess Lisa calls you Tart when you're mad at her!"

Chuckie giggled. "Yeah! I guess she was just messing with you this whole time, Bart!"

Bart glanced at Chuckie, back at Lisa, and shrugged. "I guess so." he replied. He smiled. "This whole big brother thing is gonna be real interesting."

Soon, the cop asked Danny some questions (Of course, Danny had to lie about two or three times to keep the babies communication a secret.). Once that was done, Jerald and Zack approached the babies.

"We just wanted to thank you kids again for rescuing us from the closet." Jerald replied.

"And if there's anything you guys need, just let us know." Zack added.

Danny smiled up at the two substitute janitors. "Thanks you guys, but we don't really ne-," He paused. "Actually, I've got two things to ask you for. That is, if you can do them."

"Sure, kid! You name it!"

Danny pointed down the hall on his right. "All of my marbles are scattered down that hallway. Could at least one of you pick them up and put them in this brown paper bag?" He handed the bag to Jerald. "We need to get back to The Children's Art Center. My playmate's parents and Bart's dad will be back here any minute!"

Jerald nodded. "Sure! What's the other thing you want us to do?"

Danny took Chuckie's red folder from out of his hands and gave it to Zack. "This is Chuckie's artwork." he stated. "He's a really good artist! Do you think you could ask the lady behind the counter if we could hang at least one of his pictures out here so everyone can see it?"

Zack smiled at Danny. "I'll see what I can do!"

"Great, thanks!"

Chuckie smiled proudly.

* * *

**_ W_**hen Stu and Didi came to pick up the babies ten minutes later, Bart and Lisa had already left The Children's Art Center with Homer. "Don't worry, you guys!" Bart had exclaimed before he left. "We'll see each other again!"

As the six of them exited the museum, Didi asked how their day went. Danny explained to Stu and Didi about the two criminals who tried to steal The Mona Lisa awhile ago, and how a police cop came to question them. The Pickles' were alarmed at first, but Danny assured them that besides coming in to pretend to be janitors, they had not harmed anyone in the Art Center.

"What did you say to the cop?" Stu asked.

Danny shrugged. "Nothing really. I just said they were pretending to be janitors, and were going to steal the copy of the Mona Lisa. I was the one who overheard the bad guys talking outside the Art Center while looking for my box of crayons I dropped, so I told someone to call the police."

Didi smiled at Danny. "Well, I'm very proud of you, Danny." she replied. "And I'm sure your parents will be too once they get back."

Stu nodded. "Did anything else happen while we were gone?"

Susie answered the question this time. "Chuckie got his polka dot picture put into the museum where everyone can sees it!"

Chuckie beamed.

"That's very nice!" Didi exclaimed. "Good job, Chuckie!"

"Did anything else happen?" Stu asked, still grinning at Chuckie.

Danny put his index finger and thumb underneath his chin and thought for a moment. Soon, he put his hand down, shook his head, and said, "Nope. That's basically all that happened."

TO BE CONTINUED…


End file.
